Thanksgiving was created to teach a nation that gratitude in both the easy and hard times shapes the next generation, and that is exactly the lesson we must pass on around our tables. The holiday wasn’t born from comfort or celebration. It wasn’t established so Americans could bask in prosperity or unity. It was created in the middle of national catastrophe, when hope itself felt fragile.

President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in November 1863, the same year the Battle of Gettysburg claimed more than 51,000 American lives. The country was torn apart. Families were grieving sons, fathers and brothers. The Union’s future was uncertain. It was, by any measure, one of the darkest moments in American history. Yet Lincoln did not call for a day of mourning. He calle

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